Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that has many industrial and household uses. Ozone effectively kills bacteria, inhibits fungal growth, and inactivates many viruses, cysts, and spores. In addition, soaps, oils, and chloramines can be rendered environmentally safe by ozone treatment. The antiseptic properties of ozone are useful for water purification, room sanitation, equipment sterilization, and food preservation.
There are several known methods for producing ozone from air or other oxygen-containing gases. A number of these processes generate ozone by passing an oxygen-containing gas between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric material--the oxygen is converted to ozone as it travels through the electrical corona. Ozone has a half-life of only about 22 minutes at ambient temperatures, and at higher temperatures the rate of ozone decay is accelerated. An efficient ozone generator should, therefore, produce a high concentration of ozone without generating appreciable heat.
To this aim, several modifications on the basic corona discharge ozone generator have been developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,673 relates to an ozone generator characterized by an outer electrode overlying a portion of a dielectric tube filled with a mass of helical windings which serves as an inner electrode. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,344 teaches the enhancement of ozone production by employing electrodes with a jagged surface while U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,656 teaches that an electrode of polygonal shape provides uniform gas discharge at low electrical voltages. Furthermore, with regard to heat dissipation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,858 teaches the benefits of coating the surface of a dielectric tube with non-conductive particles of inorganic material.
Despite the numerous beneficial applications for ozone and repeated attempts in the prior art to invent an efficient ozone generator, such a discovery has not yet occurred. The failure of the prior art to provide an efficient ozone generator can be attributed to three persistent problems: improperly aligned electrodes, accumulation of heat generated by the electrical discharge, and the lack of a means to direct freshly made ozone away from the apparatus to a site intended for treatment. The need for a simple and compact apparatus which efficiently produces and rapidly disperses ozone without accumulating an appreciable amount of heat is manifest.